MOSCOW -- The trial of Denis Yevsyukov -- the former Moscow district police chief accused of going on a shooting rampage in a supermarket last year -- has been postponed until January 25 because the defendant’s lawyer is ill, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Since the trial began in late December, the court has been questioning some of the more than 40 witnesses of the tragic event in which two people died and 22 were injured.

Yevsyukov, 32, a former major in Moscow's police force, allegedly began firing his pistol at a supermarket in Moscow's southern Tsaritsyno district in April after a dispute at his birthday party.

Moscow police have been accused of giving Yevsyukov preferential treatment since his arrest.